Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to diagnose earlier the symptoms of pre-eclampsia in pregnant women.

The Saving Babies’ Lives care bundle recommends the use of available algorithms to identify women at risk for pre-eclampsia. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance, recommending treatment with aspirin from the first to the third trimester of pregnancy for women at risk of pre-eclampsia and associated preterm birth is in place.

In 2019, the Accelerated Access Collaborative (which brings together industry, Government, regulators, patients and the National Health Service to accelerate the introduction of ground-breaking new treatments and diagnostics) began supporting implementation of a new Placental Growth Factor Blood test which can indicate whether a woman has the disease and whether they will need delivery soon.